- Season 2, Episode 7 -

The American Painters of the Great Depression: The Example of Thomas Donnelly 

                    (Thesis written by Cathy Mahon and narrated by Stephen Sniffin)

• Thomas Donnelly was born of Irish descent on February 25th 1893 and grew up in Washington D.C where he obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Corcoran School of Art. In 1915, he moved to New York City to launch his career as an artist. He studied at the Art Students League of NY, and later on became a member of the Board. 
• In 1917, Donnelly was drafted to the armed services under the Artists of the War Commando and joined World War I until the armistice. Back in NY, Donnelly rapidly became a well-known regionalist artist among the art connoisseurs of the city for his landscapes, coastal scenes, portraits and still life paintings. He was exhibited in museums, fairs and cultural events, all around the city. 
• His responsibility as a painter was to pay tribute to nature and to bring the rural neighbourhoods into the cities. On a summer day of 1923, the artist drove through Westchester County; he stopped near a Welcome to Valhalla sign, he carefully sharpened his lithographic crayons and slowly immortalized the village on a piece of paper. On this very same day, Thomas Donnelly fell in love with the little village of Valhalla. Today, his sketch Overlooking Valhalla is part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collections. 
• In 1925, Thomas met Eve Kollgen, a 23-year old young English lady aspiring to become an artist. After dating for a few months, they got married and built their home in Valhalla. The four-bedroom house was located less than an hour away from NY, right next to the dam, on 44 Howard Avenue. They built it big enough to welcome a family. Donnelly had it all planned; he would commute to the city for his exhibits, would come home each night to his family, and would continue painting the countryside. 
• Little did the know that he had invested in a house that would soon become a financial burden. The Roaring 20s were about to come to an end and the stock market was about to crash. On 29 October 1929, the biggest financial crisis in US history abruptly hit the country, driving Donnelly’s artwork to remain unsold, his bills to accumulate, and his quality of life to collapse. 
• Because of the depression, Donnelly’s clients could no longer pay for his artwork. Within a few months, the rising star became a distant celebrity, with scarcer visits to NY City, and with exhibits more locally based. 
• In June 1934, Donnelly wrote a desperate letter to Forbes Watson, the director in charge of the art program of the Works Progress Administration and to President Roosevelt himself, begging them to implement a strong Federal project that would replace the local programs, and would truly help the struggling artists. His letters did not remain unread, and when the Federal Art Project of the Work Progress Administration was finally launched in August 1935, Thomas Donnelly immediately became a proud federal employee. For $40 a month, his job was to embellish America and paint “the American Scene” on public buildings. 
• On September 16th 1948, Eve, Thomas Donnelly’s beloved bride of 22 years, died at the early age of 45 years old, leaving the artist devastated. From then on, he refused all invitations from the major institutions and became a part-time schoolteacher in Valhalla public school and a jury in the local art contests. He finally remarried 18 years later. 
• But at last, on April 24th 1971, after a long and full life, Thomas Donnelly, the World War I veteran, the talented New Yorker, the artist of the Great Depression, and the local resident of Valhalla, died peacefully at the age of 78 years old in his home.